Posts Tagged ‘Love’

Posted on December 29, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

Negativity.

My wife knows better than anyone.  I can be the nicest person in the world.  I can also be the meanest, pitbull-esque person on earth.  It’s easy to be negative.  I think that’s why it’s so easy for me to slip back to that place.  It’s easy for me to get mad, hold grudges, stay angry, pick on people.

It’s hard for me to admit that I hold them.  It’s hard for me to confess the plank in my eye.  It’s hard for me to say things like, “you’re right.” or “I’m sorry.” 

I struggle with it daily.  But, I am making the effort to say those things.  I am making an effort to apologize for things I’ve done wrong.  I am working on improving my temper, and in turn my relationships one at a time.

I do not want to sit here and make ‘goals for 2010′.  That’s not my bag.  I do want to say though, that life is a continuous effort, and my effort is going to be focusing on love.  Focusing on sharing that love with anyone I come in contact with.  My effort is to be the husband, father, friend, stranger that people look at and strive to be like.  My effort is to be Love. 

Happy new years folks.  Don’t make resolutions.  Don’t make goals.  Be the change you want to see in others.

Posted on December 9, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

Tiger Who?

The rumor mill is running overtime.  There’s talk of a guy named Tiger Woods.  Perhaps you’ve heard the stories.  The ‘rumor’ is he’s been having affairs with, well, just about everyone.  I’m pretty sure Cleopatra just came forward from the dead.

People keep saying, “Is this our business?”  I have two answers for that.  Yes and no.  It’s that easy.  Is it fair that the entire world is obsessed with what you’re doing?  No.  Did you mind it when you were the first black man to win the Masters?  No.

“But he didn’t choose to be a role model! America forced this on him!”

I beg to differ.  I bet Rolex, Gatorade, Nike, AT&T, Accenture, American Express, General Mills and Gillette beg to differ too.

The man’s made billions of dollars to be a ‘Role Model’. Sure, his athletic ability made him marketable, but the fact that he was a likable person that people could look up to and aspire to be is what signed his check.  I guarantee it.

The last thing I want to say about this is:

Forgiveness.  This man is forgiven.  I want you all to remember that.  God has already forgotten it.  I assume that’s why God doesn’t work for the paparazzi.  It’s over.  It’s done with.  Forgiven. My prayer is that the people can do the same thing.  Pray for Tiger.  Pray for his family.  Pray for his children.  Pray that he is confronted by God so heavily that he falls on his face.  Not in a bad way, in a good way.  Pray that he falls on his face in repentance.  Pray that he is forever changed by Jesus Christ!  I was. You were.  He will be too!

Pray for these girls that he’s been sleeping with.  Ranging from actresses, to porn stars to servers, they all need your prayers as well.

We are all dirty, no good, flat on our face worthless sinners.  Jesus was beaten, bloodied, spit on, mocked, denied and killed because he knew that we would screw up.  Because he knew Tiger would do this.  He knew we would all be this foolish.  He knew we wouldn’t want to pray for Tiger, and he knew that you would do that thing you did. Just remember he’s human as well.

Thoughts?

Posted on October 14, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

A Father’s Love

4 weeks ago, I almost wrote a post about our Father’s love.  I was gonna write about how I know I could never wrap my head around His love, but how I thought I pretty much got the idea.

I’m not going to write that now.  When I saw Gemma for the first time… I can’t even describe the feeling.  Still, to this day, every time I look at Gemma, my eyes swell up, and I can’t believe how much I love that little girl.  It’s the most surreal feeling I’ve ever felt in my entire life!

Two days after Gemma was born, a doctor came in and asked us if they could give her a lumbar puncture to test for meningitis.  That hurt like I can’t even describe.  Parents out there, I am sure understand the feeling.  I got to thinking about it, and I realized…. God gave His only son for us.  Not to get a lumbar puncture, but to be beaten, spit on, stabbed, and then nailed to a cross!!!

I can honestly say, I don’t think I could do that.  Heck, I could hardly approve a lumbar puncture, which would make sure she was healthy!

I’m writing this to say… I was wrong.  I cannot, and will never be able to understand God’s love.  There was a minute where I thought I may be able to wrap my head around it.  I can’t.  What an amazing week!  What an amazing God!

Posted on August 13, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

Rich/Poor

Times are tight.  It’s no secret for anyone.  Money is harder to come by, and when you come by it, you have to work twice as hard to get it.  Everyone knows that nowadays.

When I was in my early 20’s. (Words I never thought I’d say) I was a bar manager.  What that meant was I got paid 800 dollars base every week.  I also got to take 4 bar shifts of my choice. What that means is I was making an additional 500-800 dollars depending on the week.   Do the math.  It was a good amount of money.  I’m not saying I was rich, but what I am saying is I had money.  Now, what I was spending that money on is something different.  I was spending that money to fill a void.  I spent it to feel accepted.  I spent it (at least 100 dollars a day) to get high/drunk.

Now.  I work as an IT professional.  I’m not going to say my salary, because I’ll probably get laughed off of the interwebs, and we don’t want that.  I have money, but it’s tight.  But what else I have is incomparable. I have a wife who loves me, a strong support from friends and a little baby girl on the way.  I have a found love from Jesus Christ, who died for everything I did when I was at the bar.  And last but not least, I have peace.  Peace.

So, as I sit here convicted, constantly stressing about my bank account and how much money goes into it versus how much comes out, I am reminded by my Savior and Lover of my soul, I am rich in so many other things that money doesn’t really matter.

AND: If I sit around all day long and obsess over money, and argue about money, and cry about money, and pray about money, and think about money, and think of ways to get money and, did I say cry about money?  I might just miss a second to tell my wife I love her, to imagine what my daughter is gonna look like in 15 years, what I’m gonna tell her the first time a boy breaks up with her, what I’m gonna tell that boy the first time she introduces me to him, what an amazing love I’ve found in Jesus, to pray for friends safety (and/or recovery) to pray for my wife’s healthy pregnancy and to just give God all the praise and glory I can.

Amen.

Posted on July 15, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

Never Be The Same

I want anyone who reads this to take a second out of their day and tell the people in your lives how much they are appreciated.

Call your mom, your sister, your husband, your wife, whoever.  Tell them you love them.  If you’re arguing with someone, fix it.

There is nothing so bad that it can’t be fixed.

Let the people in your life know you love them.  It might be the last time you ever get to tell them that.

Make today count.

Posted on March 3, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

Too Much Noise.

It sure has been a while since I’ve written. Heck for that matter, it had been a while since I had opened my twitter app.  Yesterday, I felt a sense of OK with opening it, so I opened it, and boom!  Within fifteen minutes I was really annoyed.  At what?  I don’t even know for sure, I just got annoyed. Something is not right with that.

That pretty much sums up the reason for time without this stuff.  It seemed like every time I got on, there was noise.  A blog fight about which sin is the best, someone talking about how awesome Obama is, or GASP how horrible he is.  Finger pointing, and no real collaboration to work together as any form of ‘community’ to talk about the real problems.  I even participated in some of this stuff, and it chilled my bones.  When did this thing become less about Him?

I took last week to focus on my wife, quitting smoking, and Him.  It wasn’t an intentional week.  It could have been shorter or longer. It still might be.  I may post every day.  I may post once every couple of days.  What’s important to me, is I post what I feel God is putting on my heart.  I want to focus on non judgement, and love.  Why this whole thing started.  I want to talk about forgiveness and salvation.  I want you guys to read with, and comment.

This wasn’t ‘time of from the internet’ or ‘time off from blogging’.  This was silence.  because I felt that, I heard it.  Silence.

For those who are wondering, I have quit smoking for over a week.  I’m doing ok, and I am pretty sure the worst part is over.  I have been praying alot about redemption, salvation, and everything that He has done for ALL of us.

1 O GIVE thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever! 2 Let the redemmed of the Lord say so, whom He has delivered from the hand of the adversary, 3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the [Red] Sea in the south. 4 Some wandered in the wilderness in a solitary desert track; they found no city for habitation. 5 Hungry and thirsty, they fainted; their lives were near to being extinguished. 6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.

Man, isn’t he just awesome?

Posted on January 27, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

A Love Above All

I think we can all be better at loving our enemies.

I think we can all improve at loving our neighbors.

I think we all could get better at loving each other.

I think we all need help loving ourselves.

How amazing is a Love that is perfect.  So perfect in fact that he doesn’t need to improve.  A Love that still Loves us, even though we need all the improvement in the world.

Wow.

Posted on January 8, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

I’m not Smart.

I am not smart.  I mean, I figure stuff out eventually, but all in all, I’m not.  I am not a scholar, and I am not a theologian, nor do I have deep knowledge of most things.

When I write, I write what I feel in my heart.  Most of the times I can’t even find words, because I think my heart is now experiencing things my brain can’t comprehend.  I guess that’s the glorious thing about God.  In seeing His Love, my love grows.

My relationship with my wife intensifies every day, and I can say we haven’t argued in a long time.  Every day, I take time to sit and think about her.  I know it sounds corny, but it’s true.  I take ten minutes or so to just sit and think about her, read her blog, and just think about the passion she speaks with, loves with and lives with.  Each day, I find myself short of breath, thinking about how it’s nearly impossible for me to love her as much as I do.  It feels like a good panic attack.  You know the feeling?

Now, once I’m done thinking about that, I can’t help but think, “Holy cow!  God loves me even more than that!  I can’t even wrap my head around my love for Andrea, and here I am, a complete loser with huge issues, and struggles with sin, and our God loves me more than I can imagine.  God has ‘good panic attacks’ because He loves me that much?  (No, I can’t back the panic attack part up biblically)  That’s how I imagine it.  Honestly, it brings me to my knees. I truly am not worthy of His love.  But he does it anyway.  He is more than worthy of our love, and sometimes, I struggle.

wow.

Posted on January 6, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

Stop.

He died for you.

But He didn’t just die for you.

He died so we ALL had a chance at redemption.

Not just you.

Not just me.

All.

Every Sin.

Not just the ones we deem ‘forgivable’

It’s Pretty amazing.

We have all been saved and forgiven by HIS mercy grace and infinite Love.

Jesus Christ.

What a Mighty God we serve.

Posted on December 29, 2008 - by Andy McMahon

Bite your tongue.

This week has been, for the most part, great.  My only complaint.  Some people just need to learn to bite their tongues.  Some people need to think about other peoples feelings before speaking. (myself included)  It’s happened numerous times this week.  Hurtful things have been said.  For the soul purpose of hurting someone.  In what should be a celebration week, people can only act on their fear and anger.  If only we could act so easily on love.

What a glorious world it could be!